This is great. The people of Khakassia finally showed Putin and all the Kremlin political strategists—who had descended on the republic in huge numbers over the past few months—that they were no match for them.
The Communist Party candidate Valentin Konovalov has been elected governor, despite all the chaos:
- after losing in the first round, the United Russia candidate dropped out, and then all the other puppet candidates did too. As a result, the election kept being postponed, and Konovalov was left as the only name on the ballot.
- an aggressive “vote against” campaign was launched across the republic (under the law, Konovalov could win with any number of votes, as long as the number of votes “for” him was higher than the number “against”).
- virtually the entire local elite was pulled into this campaign, from athletes and officials to entertainers.
- the internet was flooded with “creative videos” by sellout rappers, like this one:
- everything was plastered with leaflets like these, made to look “protest-style”:
- campaigning for the “against” vote was carried out right at polling stations on election day.
Even so, it didn’t work. In Khakassia, people united against every kind of Putin-era elite, from Kremlin crooks to local celebrity cheerleaders.
Congratulations to Valentin Konovalov, to Khakassia, and to all of us.
Let me say this right away: I don’t care that Konovalov is a communist. What matters is that he ran against Putin and United Russia and won. What matters for all of us is that no single party should have a monopoly.
They won’t let us take part in elections? Fine—then let the Communists and the LDPR (Liberal Democratic Party of Russia) fight it out with United Russia however they can. Most of the time it’s staged opposition, but here it was real, and the authorities lost.
And the whole country won.
Places